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• Bridging the Digital Divide: Enhancing Digital Inclusion of Blind or Partially Sighted and Deaf or Hard of Hearing Individuals in Low- and Middle-Income Countries through Smartphones as Assistive Technology

  Maryam Bandukda, Mary Caroline Yuk, Giulia Barbareschi, Laxmi Gunupudi, Vinicius Ramos, Amit Prakash, Satish Mishra, Victoria Austin, Catherine Holloway · 2026 · ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing

  This multi-country study evaluates a two-day scaffolded digital skills training intervention designed to improve smartphone proficiency among blind or partially sighted (BPS) and deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) individuals in Brazil, India, and Kenya. The research recruited 395…

  digital inclusion · digital literacy · LMIC · blind and low vision · deaf and hard of hearing

• Fuzzy Feelings: Arousal's Interpretive Noise and the Case for Acoustic-Based Haptics

  Caluã de Lacerda Pataca, Stephanie Patterson, Roshan L Peiris, Matt Huenerfauth · 2026 · CHI '26: Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

  This CHI 2026 paper from a team at Rochester Institute of Technology and Birmingham City University tackles a persistent gap in captioning: traditional captions carry words but strip the emotional tone, rhythm, and vocal affect that sighted hearing viewers absorb automatically.…

  captioning · expressive captions · haptic feedback · vibrotactile · affective computing

• Reclaiming VR Design Authority: Deaf Signers Shaping Immersive Classrooms

  Shuxu Huffman, Laura South, Matthew James Buckman, Raja Kushalnagar, Francisco Raul Ortega, Abraham Glasser · 2026 · Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '26)

  This paper reports a Deaf-led, ASL-first study of a VR classroom prototype designed to reduce the persistent "visual attention split" that Deaf students experience in remote and online classrooms, where gaze must constantly shuttle between a signing instructor and instructional…

  deaf and hard of hearing · deaf tech · virtual reality · visual attention split · american sign language

• μCap: Instrumental Music Captions for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Individuals

  SooYeon Ahn, In-Chang Baek, KyungJoong Kim, Khai N. Truong, Jin-Hyuk Hong · 2026 · Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '26)

  Ahn and colleagues introduce μCap (Music Captions), an automatic captioning system that makes instrumental music accessible to Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (DHH) audiences by producing time-aligned, non-lexical textual renderings — syllable-like strings such as 'Tta-da-ding' or…

  deaf and hard of hearing · DHH · captions · closed captions · music accessibility

• SoundWeAR: Co-Designing AR Sound Cues to Support Outdoor Awareness for DHH Individuals

  Anna Surovkova, Tianze Xie, Xinan Yang, Seungwoo Je · 2026 · Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '26)

  SoundWeAR investigates how augmented-reality glasses can translate environmental sound into visual cues that support the situational awareness of Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) people in outdoor settings - a context prior work has largely neglected in favour of indoor scenarios…

  deaf and hard of hearing · augmented reality · sound awareness · sound visualization · situational awareness

• Deaf and Hard of Hearing Access to Intelligent Personal Assistants: Comparison of Voice-Based Options with an LLM-Powered Touch Interface

  Paige S DeVries, Michaela Okosi, Ming Li, Nora Dunphy, Gidey Gezae, Dante Conway, Abraham Glasser, Raja Kushalnagar, Christian Vogler · 2026 · Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '26)

  This mixed-methods study compares three input methods for Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) people who use their voice to interact with an Amazon Echo Show: (1) natural deaf-accented speech via Alexa's built-in ASR, (2) Wizard-of-Oz 'facilitated English' where a trained human…

  deaf and hard of hearing · voice assistant · intelligent personal assistant · automatic speech recognition · deaf-accented speech

• Like, Comment & Caption: A Decade of Social Media Video Caption Research (2015-2025)

  Huong Nguyen, Emma J. McDonnell, Lloyd May, Alexander Druzenko, Zoobia Saifullah Syeda, Mark Cartwright, Sooyeon Lee · 2026 · Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '26)

  This CHI 2026 paper is a systematic literature review of 36 peer-reviewed studies on Social Media Video Captions (SMVC) published between 2015 and 2025, spanning HCI, accessibility, media studies, education, and language learning. The authors use 'SMVC' as an umbrella for…

  captioning · captions · video accessibility · social media accessibility · Deaf and hard of hearing

• Exploring the Impacts of Background Noise on Auditory Stimuli of Audio-Visual eHMIs for Hearing, Deaf, and Hard-of-Hearing People

  Wenge Xu, Foroogh Hajiseyedjavadi, Debargha Dey, Tram Thi Minh Tran, Mark Colley · 2026 · Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '26)

  This CHI 2026 paper investigates a critical but overlooked accessibility question in the design of external Human-Machine Interfaces (eHMIs) for automated vehicles (AVs): how do Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (DHH) pedestrians experience audio-visual eHMIs, and how does real-world…

  deaf and hard of hearing · external human-machine interface · automated vehicles · pedestrian safety · multimodal interaction

• Towards Inclusive External Human-Machine Interface: Exploring the Effects of Visual and Auditory eHMI for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing People

  Wenge Xu, Foroogh Hajiseyedjavadi, Kurtis Weir, Chukwuemeka Eze, Mark Colley · 2026 · Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '26)

  This CHI 2026 paper is a companion to Xu et al. 2026 (10.1145/3772318.3791557) but with a broader, two-stage inclusive-design focus: selecting appropriate visual eHMI concepts for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (DHH) pedestrians and then evaluating how visual and auditory eHMIs work…

  deaf and hard of hearing · external human-machine interface · automated vehicles · pedestrian safety · multimodal interaction

• Redesigning Educational Videos for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Learners

  Si Chen, Haocong Cheng, Suzy Su, Lu Ming, Sarah Masud, Qi Wang, Yun Huang · 2026 · Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '26)

  Educational videos have exploded in higher education and online learning, but accessibility guidance for d/Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (DHH) learners has barely moved beyond captions and transcripts. Chen and colleagues argue this is a theoretical gap as much as a practical one:…

  deaf and hard of hearing · video accessibility · captioning · multimedia learning · cognitive accessibility

• From Daily Song to Daily Self: Supporting Emotional Growth of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Individuals through Generative AI Songwriting

  Youjin Choi, JinYoung Yoo, JaeYoung Moon, Yoonjae Kim, Eun Young Lee, Jennifer G Kim, Jin-Hyuk Hong · 2026 · Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '26)

  This CHI 2026 paper introduces SoulNote, a generative-AI songwriting system designed to support sustained emotional growth for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (DHH) individuals through music-based journaling. The authors argue that prior music-GenAI accessibility work has focused on…

  Generative AI · Deaf and Hard of Hearing · songwriting · mental health · music accessibility

• Social Play Between Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children and Hearing Peers: Learning from Children and School Ecosystems

  Jing Zhao, Isabel Neto, Michaela Okosi, Paulo Vaz de Carvalho, Hugo Nicolau · 2026 · Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '26)

  This CHI 2026 paper investigates how Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) children and their hearing peers engage in social play on school playgrounds, and how the surrounding school ecosystem shapes those interactions. The authors frame the work with Bronfenbrenner's ecological model…

  deaf and hard of hearing · DHH children · social play · school ecosystem · peer culture

• The Perceptual Gap: Why We Need Accessible XAI for Assistive Technologies

  Shadab H. Choudhury · 2026 · Extended Abstracts of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '26)

  Choudhury (University of Maryland, Baltimore County) presents a position paper and targeted literature review arguing that explainable AI (XAI) — the body of methods that help users understand why a black-box model produced a particular output — is fundamentally inaccessible to…

  explainable AI · XAI · artificial intelligence · blind and low vision · deaf and hard of hearing

• Speech AI for All: The What, How, and Who of Measurement

  Kimi Wenzel, Alisha Pradhan, Maria Teleki, Tobias M. Weinberg, Robin Netzorg, Alyssa Hillary Zisk, Anna Seo Gyeong Choi, Jingjin Li, Raja Kushalnagar, Colin Lea, Abraham Glasser, Christian Vogler, Ly Xinzhen M. Zhangsun Brown, Nan Bernstein Ratner, Allison Koenecke, Karen Nakamura, Shaomei Wu · 2026 · Extended Abstracts of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '26) — Workshop

  This CHI 2026 workshop proposal — the second in the organisers' 'Speech AI for All' series — assembles 17 researchers, practitioners, and community advocates to tackle a specific downstream problem in fair and accessible speech AI: measurement. The motivating claim is that…

  speech AI · automatic speech recognition · speech diversity · augmentative and alternative communication · disfluency

• Silence is a Feature, Not a Bug: A Deaf Developer’s Autoethnography on Agency and Local AI

  Chenyang Gong · 2026 · Extended Abstracts of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA ’26)

  This CHI 2026 Extended Abstract is a three-page autoethnographic provocation by a Deaf computer science graduate student who uses a MED-EL cochlear implant. The author refuses the medical-model framing of deafness as deficit and instead argues that the ability to remove the…

  autoethnography · deaf and hard of hearing · cochlear implant · automatic speech recognition · captioning

• Turning the Knobs of Musical Emotion: Designing Emotion-Oriented Audio Control Interface for Cochlear Implant Users

  Hyojin Kim, Taein Song, Kyung Myun Lee · 2026 · CHI EA '26: Extended Abstracts of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

  Kim, Song, and Lee (KAIST) tackle a persistent but under-designed problem in hearing accessibility: cochlear implant (CI) users can hear music but receive it in a spectrally coarse, pitch-degraded form that blunts emotional perception. Rather than pursue the well-trodden…

  cochlear implant · music accessibility · deaf and hard of hearing · audio interface · musical emotion

• Speaker-Aware Affective Captioning for Multi-Speaker STEM Talk in Inclusive Classrooms

  Sunday David Ubur, Denis Gracanin, Stephanie P DeHart, Enoch Katey Akli, Fatemeh Sarshartehrani, Sikiru Adewale · 2026 · Extended Abstracts of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '26)

  Ubur and colleagues at Virginia Tech address a specific failure mode of live captioning in classroom and meeting settings: collapsing multi-speaker discourse into a single text stream that obscures who said what and how it was said. They argue this is especially consequential…

  captioning · deaf and hard of hearing · speaker diarization · speech emotion recognition · STEM education

• "It only needs to work for one of us": Rethinking DIY Deaf Tech Through Situated Co-Design

  Shuxu Huffman, Robin Angelini, Raja Kushalnagar, Katta Spiel · 2025 · Proceedings of the 27th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '25)

  This experience report documents how a Deaf open water swimmer (Huffman, the first author) and their hearing kayak partner collaboratively designed and built DeafSwim, a vibration-based communication system for use during long-distance open water swims. The kayaker accompanies…

  deaf and hard of hearing · assistive technology · DIY assistive technology · co-design · participatory design

• SignStreamNet: Streaming Sign Language Video-to-Text Translation for Accessibility

  Warfa Ahmed · 2025 · Proceedings of the 27th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2025)

  This paper introduces SignStreamNet, a hybrid neural network architecture designed to translate sign language video into written text in near real-time. The system addresses a fundamental accessibility barrier: over 70 million Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (DHH) people worldwide rely…

  sign language translation · deaf and hard of hearing · real-time translation · deep learning · computer vision

• Toward a Multi-layer Framework to Assess the Quality of Life Impact of Smartphones as Assistive Technology for People with Sensory Disabilities in Kenya

  Maryam Bandukda, Lan Xiao, Giulia Barbareschi, Philip Oyier, Henry Athiany, Raul Szekely, Wallace M Karuguti, Mwangi J Matheri MJM, Victoria Austin, Catherine Holloway · 2025 · ASSETS 2025: 27th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility

  This paper presents the first longitudinal mixed-methods study investigating the impact of smartphones as assistive technology on the quality of life (QoL) of blind or partially sighted (BPS) and deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) individuals in Kenya. The study involved 193…

  smartphones · assistive technology · Global South · Kenya · blindness and visual impairment

• CapTune: Adapting Non-Speech Captions With Anchored Generative Models

  Jeremy Zhengqi Huang, Caluã De Lacerda Pataca, Saelyne Yang Wu, Dhruv Jain · 2025 · ASSETS 2025: 27th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility

  CapTune is a system that enables customization of non-speech captions—descriptions of environmental sounds, music, and other audio cues—for Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) viewers. Current captioning practices follow a one-size-fits-all model based on standardized guidelines like…

  closed captioning · non-speech information · caption customization · deaf and hard of hearing · generative AI

• CoSignPlay: A Collaborative Approach to Learning Non-Manual Signs in ASL for Hearing Families with Deaf Children

  Xuanyu Liu, Hsin-Le Cheng, Guillaume Chastel, Margaret Chastel, Zhen Bai · 2025 · ASSETS 2025: 27th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility

  This paper introduces CoSignPlay, a novel collaborative learning approach for teaching non-manual signs (NMS) in American Sign Language to hearing families with deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children. Over 90% of DHH children are born to hearing families, and without accessible…

  American Sign Language · non-manual signs · deaf and hard of hearing · collaborative learning · avatar

• CARTGPT: Real-Time Correction of CART Captions Using Large Language Models

  Liang-Yuan Wu, Andrea Kleiver, Dhruv Jain · 2025 · ASSETS 2025: 27th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility

  This paper introduces CARTGPT, a real-time system that enhances Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) captions by combining human-generated CART transcripts with automatic speech recognition (ASR) output and using GPT-4 to detect and correct transcription errors. CART…

  deaf and hard of hearing · real-time captioning · CART · large language models · automatic speech recognition

• SoundNarratives: Rich Auditory Scene Descriptions to Support Deaf and Hard of Hearing People

  Liang-Yuan Wu, Dhruv Jain · 2025 · ASSETS 2025: 27th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility

  This paper introduces SoundNarratives, a real-time system that generates rich, contextual auditory scene descriptions tailored to deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) users. Existing sound recognition technologies typically classify sounds into predefined categories like "door…

  deaf and hard of hearing · sound awareness · generative AI · audio-language models · prompt engineering

• Sonic Agency: A Group Autoethnography of Technology-mediated Performance Practice by Deaf and Hard of Hearing Musicians

  Doga Cavdir, Dillon Simone, Myles de Bastion, Shawn Trail, Nate Hergert · 2025 · ASSETS 2025: 27th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility

  This paper presents a 15-month group autoethnography conducted by a mixed-hearing team of five researchers and musicians affiliated with CymaSpace, a Deaf-owned music and culture institution in Portland, Oregon. The study examines how d/Deaf and Hard of Hearing musicians…

  deaf and hard of hearing · musical accessibility · autoethnography · haptic feedback · assistive music technology